When I wrote the book, EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY, I thought it would be fun to include a foster kitten named Chaos. He was a spunky little critter that enriched the story and the lives of my characters. Fast forward a couple of months and my family and I found ourselves rescuing a two week old kitten, who is now named King George, and is a solid (and spunky) member of our pack. Did writing about Chaos bring George into our life? Hmm.

Chaos

King George

Another plot point in today's release is that my characters are stuck in a blizzard in Maine for three days. Next door neighbors with kids and pets, surviving a brutally cold winter -- great set up for a romance, right? Yeah, sure, and now I'm visiting New England and it looks like they're about to break the record for coldest number of days in a row since 1917 - one hundred years, people! I'm not saying my book brought on the cold snap, but I'm not not saying it either.

A stream in the woods on New Year's Eve

So, if there is a life-art connection happening, I'm thinking in my next book my characters need to find a cupboard full of fresh baked pies or a trunk full of gold, you know, just to see if art really is imitating life. What about you, Reds? Have you ever written something and then had it happen to you? Coincidence or...?

For anyone who wants a looksee, here's an excerpt from EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY:

The blizzard
caused power outage continued through three board games, lunch, an arts and
crafts project that was supposed to be making snowflakes out of printer paper
but turned into an epic fail when Zachary Caine unfolded his and it looked like
six knobby penises.

“Oh, wow,
I didn’t see that happening,” he said.

Jessie
Connolly about choked on her own spit from trying not to laugh as Zach tried to
hide his pervy snowflake from her girls. He should have known better by now. When he
hid it behind his back, they attacked. Five-year-old Maddie wrestled it from
his hands while seven-year-old Gracie distracted him by saying she heard
someone on the front porch.

Jessie
turned away. The urge to laugh was becoming too much and she had to fake a
coughing fit to try and contain it. Parrots! Bless her innocent little girls’
hearts.

“Are you
all right, Momma?” Gracie asked.

“Fine, I’m
fine,” Jessie answered. Her voice was strained and she was still facing away
from them, because she knew if she looked at Zach or his snowflake, she was
going to lose it completely.

She felt
him at her back before he spoke. One arm appeared in front of her, and he
leaned close, speaking right into her ear, and said, “So, did you want to hang
my bird-like snowflake on the window with the others? The girls seem to think
it’s full of peckers.”

The laugh
when it came out of Jessie was something between and guffaw and a wheeze. As
she looked at Zach’s phallic snowflake, she doubled-up with laughter. The more
she tried to contain it, the worse the giggle fit became.

Oh, congratulations on your new release! I love the Bluff Point books, and this one sounds like lots of fun. I also wonder how I missed the story of King George, and what must have been epic round-the-clock feeding sessions those first few weeks.

I have had enough art-imitates life moments, when writing fiction, that it has given me pause. For instance, I drove perfectly sensible SUVs until I wrote about a woman with a hot, classic Mustang, and now I'm on Pony Car #2. These days, though, I'm mostly writing about dead Russian composers, and so far (fortunately) none of those have shown up.

Happy book birthday! Answering your question, what I have had several times is writing an incident, then having something show up later in the news that is very similar.It is quite odd. Not really spooky - I don't even believe in spooky - but odd.

Congrats on the book, Jen! Love Chaos and King George! Those are quite the coincidences, and I agree with Edith. Couldn't hurt to write about someone coming into a fortune. But please don't write about any more bad weather for New England -- we're doing quite well on our own!

Thank you, Karen. George is delightful handfull! The boys and I are heading home tomorrow and while I've really missed the Hub and all of my critters, I am anxious to see the baby - George. I'll be sure to post pics when I'm back in AZ!

Noted, Julia! Lord a mercy, I can not believe how cold it is (we're in MA). The boys and I bought soap bubbles to see how long it would take them to freeze - at 5 degrees this morning it took ten seconds! Gah!

Happy pub day, Jenn! You're prolific, and I'm in awe of your ability to write so well, so fast! I haven't had much experience with life imitating art, but maybe that's a good thing; Fina lives more dangerously than I do!

What a great post, Jenn! You had me laughing all the way through it. The excerpt from the book is so hilarious. I thought the setting, with the characters being snowed-in in Maine was the selling point for me, but after reading the witty banter from the excerpt, I see that was only the beginning. Happy Book Birthday, Jenn!

Jenn, Congratulations on the book release. I only write for myself. However, still 40 years on, I still am fascinated by the coincidence of the film The China Syndrome with Jack Lemon and Jane Fonda, hitting the theaters the same week as the incident at Three Mile Island. I don't think America has built any nuclear reactors since then.

When I was traveling, after we went to Windsor Castle, they had a fire. York Cathedral, fire, and San Francisco, an earthquake. Bet everyone not in Central PA is glad that I don't travel anymore. But not too far from Three Mile Island, which may be closed down soon.

Jenn, what a great post! I was reminded of a story that I wrote in the 6th grade about a Deaf woman winning Miss America then years later, a deaf woman (Heather Whitestone) won Miss America. There was another deaf woman who won Miss America too.

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